Gamma-ray Annihilation Lasers (GAL)

[rich]

or this one.  ah, it won;t hurt the environment

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- The Russian military has successfully tested
what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear
air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday.


Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all
bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all
bombs."

"The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is
comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," said
Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's
General Staff, said in televised remarks.

Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added.

rich

On 9/12/07, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6991030.stm
>
> Mirror particles form new matter
> By Jonathan Fildes
> Science and technology reporter, BBC News
>
> Fragile particles rarely seen in our Universe have been merged with
> ordinary electrons to make a new form of matter.
>
> Di-positronium, as the new molecule is known, was predicted to exist
> in 1946 but has remained elusive to science.
>
> Now, a US team has created thousands of the molecules by merging
> electrons with their antimatter equivalent: positrons.
>
> The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, is a key step in the
> creation of ultrapowerful lasers known as gamma-ray annihilation
> lasers.
>
> "The difference in the power available from a gamma-ray laser compared
> to a normal laser is the same as the difference between a nuclear
> explosion and a chemical explosion," said Dr David Cassidy of the
> University of California, Riverside, and one of the authors of the
> paper.
>
> "It would have an incredibly high power density."
>
> As a result, there is a huge interest in the technology from the
> military as well as energy researchers who believe the lasers could be
> used to kick-start nuclear fusion in a reactor.
>